Amazon has closed its warehouses in France for at least five days after a court ordered it to limit its trade to strict essentials because of Coronavirus safety fears. The case was brought by a militant union that said the company was failing to protect its workers from the virus.

The company appealed against the court’s ruling but then took even more drastic action – total closure. At first it announced closure for five days to review anti-virus measures, which it earlier insisted were adequate. But on Thursday French CEO Frédéric Duval told RTL radio he did not know when the sites would reopen.

The announcements have been accompanied by petulant complaints about the “major consequences” of “the union action that led to this result” on customers and employees, while delicately refraining to mention its effect on the company’s profits.

Amazon’s employees – there are almost 10,000 in France – will remain on full pay during the closure.

The case was taken to court by the Sud trade union, which accused the company of “carrying on as normal” despite the virus.

By contrast, in the US Amazon has fired at least three employees who have spoken out on employee safety during the epidemic.

Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa were dismissed on the grounds that they had previously broken the company’s internal regulations with public criticism of its stance on climate change.

“We support every employee’s right to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies,” an Amazon spokesperson told Fox News via email in a magnificent example of doublespeak.

Earlier, Christian Smalls was shown the door for violating “several terms of his employment”.

The French case also shows the value of France’s labour law, a regular target of free-market fanatics.

The French government has announced supplementary payments worth a total of a billion euros for the country’s four million poorest households.

Healthworkers in the worst-hit départements are to receive a bonus of 1,500 euros and the rest will be paid an extra 500 euros.

Public-sector employees who are still working are to receive a bonus of up to 1,000 euros.

It’s a shame the government didn’t listen to healthworkers when they were protesting and taking strike action over low pay and difficult working conditions last year.

Hospital admissions have gone down for the first time since the start of the epidemic. The number of people in intensive care has been falling for several days. The death toll continues to rise, however.

France’s Covid-19 death toll is now officially 17,167, up 1,438 in 24 hours. 31,779 people are in hospital, down 513, and 6,457 are in intensive care, down 273. 30,995 people have been discharged from hospital, 2,190 yesterday.